HBO shows are often a cut above the rest because of their brilliant performances. Their casting choices never miss, and we’re always given an incredible series with sometimes unexpected actors. They can often deliver performances that mark their careers, becoming synonymous with them, which may not always be great, but at least it gives them a sort of immortality.
The ten best performances in HBO shows are hard to pick because the network has so many banger shows; whether it’s an HBO staple or a brand-new series, choosing the ten greatest might be different for everyone. Still, these are universally agreed-upon killer performances that are often referred to as the best ever.
10
Jeremy Piven, ‘Entourage’
Portrays Ari Gold
Ari Gold is loud, brash, and often annoying, but amazing at his job. Though Entourage works as an ensemble cast effort, the one person people remember the most after reviewing the show is Jeremy Piven in the role of Hollywood power talent agent Gold. A lot of his jokes do not land in today’s landscape (the entire show probably couldn’t be made on the same terms), but the 2000s were, we have to face it, a different time. Despite that, 20-plus years later, Piven is still Ari Gold, through and through.
Entourage follows the entourage of up-and-coming star Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier), including his agent and longtime friend, Ari, and other people who play a big role in his life and career. It’s a satire of modern Hollywood, made as both a joke and a reflection on the industry’s realities. Gold embodies the numerous agents, producers, and other people in decision-making positions; Piven’s performance as Gold is, if it can be summarized with a single word, unleashed. He leaps when he’s fuming, he runs when he panics, and it’s a mighty surprise neither Piven nor his fictional character had a heart attack during the course of the show. Memorable and brilliant, even if Ari is one step away from madness.
9
Anthony Carrigan, ‘Barry’
Portrays NoHo Hank
Bill Hader is brilliant in Barry, and it’s the show he himself wrote and starred in, but he gets overshadowed in some—if not most—episodes by Anthony Carrigan, who portrays NoHo Hank, the right-hand man of a Chechen crime boss. The fact that Barry was initially meant to kill Hank in, like, the first episode is a testament to how well Carrigan did; throughout the series, Hank tries to befriend Barry with his charming and sometimes clueless personality, though he can’t ever be considered naive. Hank believes crime is what he’s meant to do, despite it being the last thing he wants.
Barry follows the same-name protagonist, played by Hader, who’s an Iraq War veteran and currently a hired killer working for his mentor, Fuchs (Stephen Root). Barry experiences PTSD and decides to take acting lessons, which helps him rethink his career. NoHo Hank appears in the first episode and sticks around until the end of the show, with later seasons following Hank’s growth separately from Barry’s. Carrigan’s performance is electrifying, memorable, and hilarious, often making us forget Hank is an antagonist, though no one’s really a hero in the show anyway.
Barry
- Release Date
-
2018 – 2022
- Network
-
HBO Max
8
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, ‘VEEP’
Portrays Selina Meyer
One of the most awarded performances of all time is Julia Louis-Dreyfus in VEEP as Selina Meyer, the perpetual Vice President of the United States. The show is a stellar political satire, including plenty of running jokes, slapstick gags, and dark humor to go around. Armando Iannucci created VEEP as a sort of remake of his British hit series The Thick Of It, and the show consistently received high praise, even becoming recognized as one of the greatest comedy shows and political satires of all time. This is, in no small part, due to Dreyfus’ contribution, though the entire cast really delivers their best and most ridiculous roles.
VEEP is about the American Vice President Selina Meyer and her cabinet members, who altogether make an interestingly incompetent bunch. Ambitious, cunning, but ultimately very flawed, everyone there, including Meyer, is a terrible human in some way. Dreyfus plays a very angry, foul-mouthed, and vengeful politician, trying her best to become President; she delivers her jokes dryly, looking both uncomfortable and highly content with each response. There’s never been a greater Vice President on screen than Selina Meyer, and we have Dreyfus to thank for being her unapologetic self in this show. She proved she’s a comedic force to be reckoned with.
Veep
- Release Date
-
2012 – 2018
- Network
-
HBO Max
7
Bobby Cannavale, ‘Boardwalk Empire’
Portrays Giuseppe “Gyp” Rosetti
We mustn’t ever forget Boardwalk Empire and just how amazing the show truly is. Capturing a certain era can be tough, but fortunately, having a showrunner like Terence Winter meant it would be done better than just well. Though Steve Buscemi is technically the lead, the cast is composed of a highly talented ensemble, with honorable mentions to Stephen Graham as Al Capone and Michael K. Williams as Chalky White. However, one of the most memorable roles in this four-season show was Bobby Cannavale‘s as Gyp Rosetti, season 3’s biggest, loudest, and angriest antagonist.
Boardwalk Empire follows various criminals participating in smuggling alcohol and doing other illegal stuff during the Prohibition Era (1920s and 30s). Most of the criminals mentioned existed in real life or were based on real people. Cannavale’s Rosetti is fictional, but he works for a criminal based on a real guy, Joe Masseria from NYC. Rosetti is short-fused, aggressive, tyrannical, and this is hard to admit, but funny. Cannavale perfectly embodied the guy who makes everyone in the room uncomfortable as he says what he thinks and doesn’t shy away from stepping on toes. Despite everyone in the show always being quiet, methodical, and subtle, Rosetti is more comparable to a bull in a china shop. This performance brought Cannavale an Emmy and often ranks on lists of the greatest TV villains of all time—and deservedly so.
6
Matthew Macfadyen, ‘Succession’
Portrays Tom Wambsgans
It’s difficult to say anyone stands out in Succession when everyone does an amazing job. Kieran Culkin is memorable for Roman Roy’s messy humor, while Brian Cox is the indisputable champion of father figures in his Logan Roy performance. Still, the biggest transformation in the series comes in the form of Tom Wambsgans, played beautifully by Matthew Macfadyen. Macfadyen is convincing as a foolishly ambitious man that we sometimes feel for him, especially when he delivers one of the show’s most devastating lines: “I wonder if the sad I’d be without you would be less than the sad I get from being with you.”
Succession follows the family relationships between Logan Roy (Cox) and his four children, Siobhan (Sarah Snook), Roman (Culkin), Kendall (Jeremy Strong), and Connor (Alan Ruck). They’re a media conglomerate family, and their relationships are always somehow conditioned by money, success, and ambition. Tom is Siobhan’s husband, whose role often changes in the Roy conglomerate, and his relationship with the Roys changes him over time. Macfadyen depicts a flawed but scrappy character whose turn to villainy is the product of exposure to the Roys and their business, though we can’t say he didn’t already have a bit of that in him. One of the greatest roles on TV, for sure, and Macfadyen was the perfect pick.
Succession
- Release Date
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2018 – 2023
- Network
-
HBO Max
5
Idris Elba, ‘The Wire’
Portrays Stringer Bell
The pattern for an organized, savvy, and precise criminal figure lies in the behavior and methods of Stringer Bell, one of the greatest fictional criminals of all time. Idris Elba portrays Bell in The Wire, whose good looks, calm demeanor, and principles contributed to making Bell an unexpectedly terrifying figure. While people find that Bell’s calmness can be approached rationally, he shows them he’s not about to listen to a speech that doesn’t benefit him. Everyone in The Wire is great, but we have to hand it to Elba for playing Bell—he created something eternal.
The Wire is about Baltimore PD detectives cracking down on drug-related cases by setting up a wiretap in some of the city’s most criminal areas. The show also involves prosecutors, lawyers, and even the FBI, while depicting the criminal side as much as the law’s side. Across the first three seasons, Bell is the main antagonist, and he’s a different sort of criminal. He attends macroeconomics classes and looks for ways to legitimize his efforts; his business acumen helps him achieve things better than his associates. Elba embodies this clever and brooding character, becoming scary when we least expect him to. His speeches are some of the most iconic in the show.
The Wire
- Release Date
-
2002 – 2008-00-00
- Network
-
HBO
4
Ian McShane, ‘Deadwood’
Portrays Al Swearengen
Ian McShane should be credited with delivering one of the greatest performances on TV, and it was the time he starred in Deadwood as Al Swearengen. McShane’s electric presence made Deadwood the amazing show it promised to be from the very start—a deadly, ruthless, and captivating story about real-life figures from the Old West. Much like the other series here, Deadwood boasts a brilliant ensemble cast that includes Timothy Olyphant and Anna Gunn, but people who love Deadwood know that McShane is the heart of the show.
Deadwood follows some historical characters during their time living in Deadwood, South Dakota. Next to Olyphant’s Seth Bullock, McShane’s Swearengen was a real person, too, and he was a businessman and pimp depicted in the show as cruel, murderous, and highly ambitious. Despite his tyrannical personality, Swearengen proved to be highly influential and impactful for Deadwood and its history. Someone like McShane was the best person to embody the man who is now on a level with a legend; some parts of Swearengen’s heritage were changed to fit McShane’s portrayal—he was changed to be English instead of American, which allowed McShane to bring an even stronger character to life. McShane won a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Swearengen and is often listed as one of the biggest villains on TV.
Deadwood
- Release Date
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2004 – 2006-00-00
- Network
-
HBO Max
3
Colin Farrell, ‘The Penguin’
Portrays Oswald “Oz” Cobb, aka The Penguin
As far as iconic physical transformations go, we know Christian Bale is still the king. However, in The Penguin, Colin Farrell gives Bale a run for his money—despite actually being in prosthetics. Still, Farrell is unrecognizable under those piles of makeup, and no one would actually guess it was him until they potentially took a deep look into the eyes or listened to his voice. His performance isn’t limited to the physical change; even with all that, Farrell succeeds in delivering a cold and sociopathic character who has had plans to become great since childhood.
The Penguin is about one of Batman’s biggest enemies, Oswald “Oz” Cobb; Cobb is the right-hand man to Gotham’s most notorious gangster, Carmine Falcone (Mark Strong). After Falcone dies, Oz is determined to do what it takes to inherit the criminal empire, but Falcone’s daughter Sofia (Cristin Milioti) comes into play after being released from Arkham Asylum. Despite being a morally corrupt character, Farrell does such a great job of making him sometimes funny and likable that people end up cheering for him. When Oz turns out to never have been a good guy, everyone feels a bit fooled and disappointed, marking an incredible turn in Farrell’s performance. He’s bound to win an Emmy for his performance.
The Penguin
- Release Date
-
2024 – 2024-00-00
- Showrunner
-
Lauren LeFranc
2
Carrie Coon, ‘The Leftovers’
Portrays Nora Durst
The Leftovers is a fairly underrated HBO show, though many people really love it. It’s underrated because it didn’t reach the levels of acclaim it was supposed to, though everyone who’s seen it agrees it’s a powerful, philosophical show that somehow combines despair and hope into the same message. All the performances in the show are amazing, starting with Justin Theroux, who plays the ensemble lead, Kevin Garvey; however, the standout is undoubtedly Carrie Coon as Nora Durst, whose performance is criminally underappreciated and the reason people like the show as much as they do. For many fans of The Leftovers, Nora is the show’s greatest character.
The Leftovers follows people in a small community called Jarden, though the narrative branches out geographically later; they’re struck with an unthinkable tragedy when 2% of the world’s entire population disappears one day. The show’s name refers to those left on Earth, coping with the disappearances and finding meaning in a random event like it. Coon’s Nora loses her entire family—a husband and two kids—and her adjustment is particularly hard. Carrie Coon is a brilliant performer, and the emotion she brings to Nora is devastating.
The Leftovers
- Release Date
-
2014 – 2017-00-00
- Showrunner
-
Damon Lindelof
1
James Gandolfini, ‘The Sopranos’
Portrays Tony Soprano
Is it even a question of whether it was going to be James Gandolfini? Everyone who’s seen enough HBO shows knows Tony Soprano is, undoubtedly, the greatest television character of all time, and not just because he’s a gangster who goes to therapy. He’s the best because of Gandolfini’s ability to portray a man with a hardened outside shell and soft insides; because, deep down, he is afraid of the life he embraced and was made into; and because he knows that everything comes with consequences, but he’s still ready to follow his own path.
The Sopranos follows Tony Soprano (Gandolfini) as he navigates the lifestyle of a crime family boss. He’s riddled with anxiety and goes to psychotherapy with Dr. Jennifer Melfi (Lorraine Bracco), balancing those inner troubles with his work, familial duties, and a Mafia code of conduct. The Sopranos itself changed the drama landscape, becoming the first show that made television feel like a movie with each episode, dramatizing and exploring various dimensions of its characters. Gandolfini’s performance became synonymous with his persona, and even though leaving a character like that is hard, he truthfully gave us all the greatest TV performance ever.